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Crandell &
Victoria Pilate, Ph.D.
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This page contains
copyright protected
material. License is
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and librarians for
educational purposes.
copyright protected
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Native American-Alaskan Native
History Month
History Month
Click here for a
downloadable pdf
file (version 1).
Click here for a
downloadable pdf
file (version 2).
Click here to
download bulletin
board images.
downloadable pdf
file (version 1).
Click here for a
downloadable pdf
file (version 2).
Click here to
download bulletin
board images.
The origin of our current celebration of Native American-Alaskan Native History
Month is varied. Several different leaders advocated historical recognition of Native
Americans. Dr. Arthur C. Parker (Seneca) organized the First Americans Day for the
Boy Scouts in the early 1900s. In 1914 Red Fox James (Blackfoot) rode horseback
across nation to rally support for a new national holiday, American Indian Day. A few
states, led by New York, voted to observe it.
Not long afterwards, in 1915 at the annual Congress of the American Indian
Association meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, a plan celebrating American Indian Day
was formally approved. The association’s president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge
(Arapahoe) issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, which declared the
second Saturday of May as American Indian Day and contained the first formal
appeal for recognition of American Indians as citizens.
On December 14, 1915, Red Fox James presented the endorsements of 24 state
governments to the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day
being proclaimed.
National recognition would come generations later. In 1990 President George H.W.
Bush approved a joint resolution of Congress designating November as "National
American Indian Heritage Month." (based on the AOA website)
Phil Lucas (Choctaw)
Phil Lucas experienced prejudice at an early age. He grew up in Arizona
and would often see in rural towns signs saying, “"No dogs or Indians
allowed.” These experiences pushed him to a new level of consciousness
and desire to tell the untold stories. He graduated from Western
Washington University with a visual-communications degree then traveled
the world for several years before settling in Washington state. Lucas
juggled his film projects, teaching, and family with success.
Lucas was one of the first American Indians to find national acclaim behind
the camera. By his death at age 65, he had written, directed or produced
more than 100 films, TV series and documentaries. Lucas won an Emmy in
1994 for co-directing "The Native Americans."
Lucas taught film at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and the
University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. At the end of his life, he was a
film instructor at Bellevue Community College in Washington, where he
founded an American Indian Film Festival in 2003. Lucas was active with
charitable work with the Baha'i faith. (Based on a Seattle Times article by
Ashley Bach)
Sand Creek Massacre: “It is a good day to die.”
On November 29, 1864, a Confederate cavalry unit led by Col. John
Chivington launched an unprovoked raid on a sleeping Indian village in
Sand Creek, Colorado. More than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho people
were massacred; most of the victims were women, children and elderly men.
Some genitals of the victims were paraded though Denver streets. A year
after the attack the U.S. Congress condemned the action and promised
reparations which never appeared. Each year, the Cheyenne people
recognize the massacre with an annual 187 mile run. At its conclusion, a
runner climbs atop a statue of a Civil War soldier at the Denver capitol to
symbolically claim victory. In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton signed a bill
creating the Sand Creek National Historic Site. (based on a Denver Post
article)
John Herrington (Chicksaw)
John Herrington is the first Native American astronaut. He was born in
Wetumka, Oklahoma but grew up in Colorado and Texas. Herrington
received a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics from the
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Later while in his early Navy
career, he received a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering
from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1995.
He was selected by NASA in April 1996 and later after training and
evaluation qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Herrington
was assigned to the Flight Support Branch of the Astronaut Office where he
served as a member of the Astronaut Support Personnel team responsible
for Shuttle launch preparations and post-landing operations. Not long
afterwards, he made history when he flew on STS-113 on space shuttle
Endeavour. His flight experience included 330 hours in space, including 3
space walks. Herrington retired from the Navy and NASA in July 2005.
(based on the NASA website)
Cecelia Apple Fire Thunder (Oglala Sioux)
In November 2004, Fire Thunder made history by being elected the first
female president of the Oglala Sioux nation. She formerly worked as a
nurse. She co-founded the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome and formerly worked in domestic violence prevention.
R.C. Gorman
Rudolph Carl Gorman was born in 1932, son of Adelle Brown Gorman and
Carl Nelson Gorman. His dad would later become one of the celebrated
World War II Navajo Code Talkers. He attended mission schools and was
encouraged to pursue his artistic talent by his teacher, Jenny Lind. After a
stint in the U.S. Navy, he attended college at the Guam Territorial College
and later the Northern Arizona University. In 1958, he went to Mexico where
he attended Mexico City College (later the University of the Americas).
From there he moved to San Francisco and continued to paint while working
as a post office employee and artist’s model. Gorman picked up ideas from
art instructors in the classes where he posed.
In 1965, he took a chance and had a one-man exhibit then three years later
he was able to purchase an art gallery which he dubbed the Navajo Gallery.
His career would then take off. He became known for his artistic
accomplishments but also the eclectic life he led. Gorman was friends with
an assortment of athletes, political figures and entertainment celebrities.
During his life he amassed an admirable collection of works by Picasso,
Chagall, Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo. His home became an art gallery
including the greats of Western art but also those of Native American art.
Gorman would earn honorary doctorates and the Harvard University’s
Humanitarian in Fine Arts Award. He died in November 2005. (based on an
article by S. Derrickson Moore)
Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee)
Lloyd New was born in Oklahoma and graduated from the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor's degree of art education in 1938. In
1946 he founded the Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale, Arizona.
More than a decade later, he started an experimental arts education
program for young American Indian adults called the Southwest Indian Arts
Project. That grew and Lloyd Kiva New became president of the Institute of
American Indian Arts which was established by Executive Order of President
John Kennedy. Under his leadership, the Institute grew from a government
funded school in 1962 to the country’s only college devoted solely to Indian
arts. New followed what was then a revolutionary concept of a national arts
college for Native Americans. Over 200 students currently study there. In
1972, the school expanded to include a museum, the Institute of American
Indian Arts Museum.
In addition to this work, New was a founding member of the Advisory Board
to the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. New was
awarded the Community Development Medal from the University of Arizona,
the American Fabrics Magazine’s Award of Merit, the American Indian
Tourism Industry’s Art Award, the Museum of Modern Arts’ Good Design
Award, the Mayor’s Recognition Award for Excellence in the Arts and an
Honorary Doctorate Degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He died February 8, 2002, following a brief illness. (based on the Buffalo
Bill Historical Center website and the Native magazine)
Johnpaul Jones (Choctaw/Cherokee)
Johnpaul Jones was born in Oklahoma and graduated from high school in
California. Like so many other Native American youth of that generation,
Jones recalled to a newspaper reporter that he was told by Caucasian
teachers, "'Oh, you're dyslexic — but you can draw.' So, they put me in a lot
of drawing classes." He would go on to study architecture at the University of
Oregon, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1967.
He now is one of the nation’s best known and acclaimed Native American
architects. Jones is the founding principal of Jones & Jones Architects
based in Seattle, Washington. Among his many projects are the design of
the San Diego Zoo, the National Museum of the American Indian in
Washington, DC, and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.
Jones volunteers with Native American tribes and mentors young Native
Americans and others of diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to help
them enter the design field. He is a Founding Member of the AIA Seattle
Diversity Roundtable. Jones has been honored with the Lawrence Medal of
the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts and was
awarded the 2005 AISES Executive Excellence Award. (Based on a Seattle
Times article by Sara Jean Green, the American Indian Science &
Technology Society (AISES) website, and the AIA Seattle website)
Charles Curtis (Kaw/Osage)
Curtis was the first Native American to be Vice President of the U.S. Curtis,
as a teen, worked as a jockey and newspaper reporter. Later, he studied
law under an attorney –rather than going to law school—and was admitted
to the bar when he was 21. Curtis was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1907.
In 1928 he was elected on the ticket with Herbert Hoover. (Based on Indian
magazine, Summer 2005)
Alaskan Aleut Internment
One of the little known stories of WWII is the Alaskan Aleut internment. Like
most Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps by President
Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, Aleuts were also interned. In
February 1942, 881 Aleuts were removed from there homes and relocated
in camps in southeast Alaska. Although they were allowed to leave, most
had no where to go and stayed in the “duration villages” until 1945.
Roosevelt’s Executive Order did not specifically intern the Aleuts but the
government required anyone with one-eight Aleut bloom or more to be
evacuated from Alaskan islands. The fear was that the Japanese would
gain a foothold in the islands and their bombers could use the islands as a
base to bomb the west coast of the contiguous states.
On June 3, 1942, Japanese planes attacked Dutch Harbor and Kiska Island
was invaded. 42 residents of Attu Island were taken as prisoners of war and
held in Otaru City on the island of Hokkaido. A third of them died there.
As a result of the attack, the U.S. government decided to evacuate the
remaining Aleuts. Residents were given less than 24 hours to prepare to
leave. They were taken to Wrangell Institute, a government boarding
school, until permanent locations could be found. Four camps were
eventually organized including a gold mine and abandoned canneries. The
lack of planning led to inadequate housing, food and poor health and
sanitation conditions. Many evacuees did not have heat for the harsh
Alaskan winters. One in ten evacuees died, mostly the elders and babies.
The Aleut homes on the islands were burned and farm animals were
slaughtered to prevent the Japanese from taking them. Even more
tragically, cultural artifacts were looted by the U.S. troops and the
Japanese. Strangely enough, some Aleuts were allowed to return to the
islands so the $2.4 million fur seal industry could continue. The Civil Rights
Act of 1988 awarded damages to Japanese Americans and Aleuts and
President George H.W. Bush issued an apology. Eligible Aleuts received up
to $12,000 in compensation and a $5 million restitution fund to benefits the
evacuees, their descendants and their communities. (based on a Seattle
Times article by Levi J. Long, February 19, 2004)
Sam Lacy (Shinnecock)
Sam Lacy, a biracial Shinnecock Indian, was born in 1903 in Connecticut but
grew up in Washington, DC. As a youth, he was a huge baseball fan. He
graduated from Howard University where he did sports commentary on the
radio with a degree in education. He also was active in semipro baseball
and basketball. In 1930 he started work for the Washington Tribune and
eventually became the managing editor. In 1948, Lacy became the first
member of color of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Early in his career, Lacy was barred from many baseball and football press
boxes because of his color. It was he who chronicled for the black press
Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947. Because of his being barred from press
boxes, famed Dodgers manager, Branch Rickey told Lacy he could report
from the Dodgers dugout. Once when he was barred from a New Orleans
baseball press box, he took a chair and sat on the press box roof. He was
soon joined by several Caucasian sportswriters from New York.
In 1997, he was named winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for
meritorious contributions to baseball writing and was named to the Baseball
Hall of Fame’s wing for writers and broadcasters. He continued in sports
reporting for a total of 69 years before dying in May 2003 at age 99. (based
on a New York Times article by Frank Litsky)
Month is varied. Several different leaders advocated historical recognition of Native
Americans. Dr. Arthur C. Parker (Seneca) organized the First Americans Day for the
Boy Scouts in the early 1900s. In 1914 Red Fox James (Blackfoot) rode horseback
across nation to rally support for a new national holiday, American Indian Day. A few
states, led by New York, voted to observe it.
Not long afterwards, in 1915 at the annual Congress of the American Indian
Association meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, a plan celebrating American Indian Day
was formally approved. The association’s president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge
(Arapahoe) issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, which declared the
second Saturday of May as American Indian Day and contained the first formal
appeal for recognition of American Indians as citizens.
On December 14, 1915, Red Fox James presented the endorsements of 24 state
governments to the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day
being proclaimed.
National recognition would come generations later. In 1990 President George H.W.
Bush approved a joint resolution of Congress designating November as "National
American Indian Heritage Month." (based on the AOA website)
Phil Lucas (Choctaw)
Phil Lucas experienced prejudice at an early age. He grew up in Arizona
and would often see in rural towns signs saying, “"No dogs or Indians
allowed.” These experiences pushed him to a new level of consciousness
and desire to tell the untold stories. He graduated from Western
Washington University with a visual-communications degree then traveled
the world for several years before settling in Washington state. Lucas
juggled his film projects, teaching, and family with success.
Lucas was one of the first American Indians to find national acclaim behind
the camera. By his death at age 65, he had written, directed or produced
more than 100 films, TV series and documentaries. Lucas won an Emmy in
1994 for co-directing "The Native Americans."
Lucas taught film at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and the
University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. At the end of his life, he was a
film instructor at Bellevue Community College in Washington, where he
founded an American Indian Film Festival in 2003. Lucas was active with
charitable work with the Baha'i faith. (Based on a Seattle Times article by
Ashley Bach)
Sand Creek Massacre: “It is a good day to die.”
On November 29, 1864, a Confederate cavalry unit led by Col. John
Chivington launched an unprovoked raid on a sleeping Indian village in
Sand Creek, Colorado. More than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho people
were massacred; most of the victims were women, children and elderly men.
Some genitals of the victims were paraded though Denver streets. A year
after the attack the U.S. Congress condemned the action and promised
reparations which never appeared. Each year, the Cheyenne people
recognize the massacre with an annual 187 mile run. At its conclusion, a
runner climbs atop a statue of a Civil War soldier at the Denver capitol to
symbolically claim victory. In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton signed a bill
creating the Sand Creek National Historic Site. (based on a Denver Post
article)
John Herrington (Chicksaw)
John Herrington is the first Native American astronaut. He was born in
Wetumka, Oklahoma but grew up in Colorado and Texas. Herrington
received a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics from the
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Later while in his early Navy
career, he received a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering
from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1995.
He was selected by NASA in April 1996 and later after training and
evaluation qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Herrington
was assigned to the Flight Support Branch of the Astronaut Office where he
served as a member of the Astronaut Support Personnel team responsible
for Shuttle launch preparations and post-landing operations. Not long
afterwards, he made history when he flew on STS-113 on space shuttle
Endeavour. His flight experience included 330 hours in space, including 3
space walks. Herrington retired from the Navy and NASA in July 2005.
(based on the NASA website)
Cecelia Apple Fire Thunder (Oglala Sioux)
In November 2004, Fire Thunder made history by being elected the first
female president of the Oglala Sioux nation. She formerly worked as a
nurse. She co-founded the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome and formerly worked in domestic violence prevention.
R.C. Gorman
Rudolph Carl Gorman was born in 1932, son of Adelle Brown Gorman and
Carl Nelson Gorman. His dad would later become one of the celebrated
World War II Navajo Code Talkers. He attended mission schools and was
encouraged to pursue his artistic talent by his teacher, Jenny Lind. After a
stint in the U.S. Navy, he attended college at the Guam Territorial College
and later the Northern Arizona University. In 1958, he went to Mexico where
he attended Mexico City College (later the University of the Americas).
From there he moved to San Francisco and continued to paint while working
as a post office employee and artist’s model. Gorman picked up ideas from
art instructors in the classes where he posed.
In 1965, he took a chance and had a one-man exhibit then three years later
he was able to purchase an art gallery which he dubbed the Navajo Gallery.
His career would then take off. He became known for his artistic
accomplishments but also the eclectic life he led. Gorman was friends with
an assortment of athletes, political figures and entertainment celebrities.
During his life he amassed an admirable collection of works by Picasso,
Chagall, Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo. His home became an art gallery
including the greats of Western art but also those of Native American art.
Gorman would earn honorary doctorates and the Harvard University’s
Humanitarian in Fine Arts Award. He died in November 2005. (based on an
article by S. Derrickson Moore)
Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee)
Lloyd New was born in Oklahoma and graduated from the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor's degree of art education in 1938. In
1946 he founded the Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale, Arizona.
More than a decade later, he started an experimental arts education
program for young American Indian adults called the Southwest Indian Arts
Project. That grew and Lloyd Kiva New became president of the Institute of
American Indian Arts which was established by Executive Order of President
John Kennedy. Under his leadership, the Institute grew from a government
funded school in 1962 to the country’s only college devoted solely to Indian
arts. New followed what was then a revolutionary concept of a national arts
college for Native Americans. Over 200 students currently study there. In
1972, the school expanded to include a museum, the Institute of American
Indian Arts Museum.
In addition to this work, New was a founding member of the Advisory Board
to the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. New was
awarded the Community Development Medal from the University of Arizona,
the American Fabrics Magazine’s Award of Merit, the American Indian
Tourism Industry’s Art Award, the Museum of Modern Arts’ Good Design
Award, the Mayor’s Recognition Award for Excellence in the Arts and an
Honorary Doctorate Degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He died February 8, 2002, following a brief illness. (based on the Buffalo
Bill Historical Center website and the Native magazine)
Johnpaul Jones (Choctaw/Cherokee)
Johnpaul Jones was born in Oklahoma and graduated from high school in
California. Like so many other Native American youth of that generation,
Jones recalled to a newspaper reporter that he was told by Caucasian
teachers, "'Oh, you're dyslexic — but you can draw.' So, they put me in a lot
of drawing classes." He would go on to study architecture at the University of
Oregon, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1967.
He now is one of the nation’s best known and acclaimed Native American
architects. Jones is the founding principal of Jones & Jones Architects
based in Seattle, Washington. Among his many projects are the design of
the San Diego Zoo, the National Museum of the American Indian in
Washington, DC, and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.
Jones volunteers with Native American tribes and mentors young Native
Americans and others of diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to help
them enter the design field. He is a Founding Member of the AIA Seattle
Diversity Roundtable. Jones has been honored with the Lawrence Medal of
the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts and was
awarded the 2005 AISES Executive Excellence Award. (Based on a Seattle
Times article by Sara Jean Green, the American Indian Science &
Technology Society (AISES) website, and the AIA Seattle website)
Charles Curtis (Kaw/Osage)
Curtis was the first Native American to be Vice President of the U.S. Curtis,
as a teen, worked as a jockey and newspaper reporter. Later, he studied
law under an attorney –rather than going to law school—and was admitted
to the bar when he was 21. Curtis was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1907.
In 1928 he was elected on the ticket with Herbert Hoover. (Based on Indian
magazine, Summer 2005)
Alaskan Aleut Internment
One of the little known stories of WWII is the Alaskan Aleut internment. Like
most Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps by President
Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, Aleuts were also interned. In
February 1942, 881 Aleuts were removed from there homes and relocated
in camps in southeast Alaska. Although they were allowed to leave, most
had no where to go and stayed in the “duration villages” until 1945.
Roosevelt’s Executive Order did not specifically intern the Aleuts but the
government required anyone with one-eight Aleut bloom or more to be
evacuated from Alaskan islands. The fear was that the Japanese would
gain a foothold in the islands and their bombers could use the islands as a
base to bomb the west coast of the contiguous states.
On June 3, 1942, Japanese planes attacked Dutch Harbor and Kiska Island
was invaded. 42 residents of Attu Island were taken as prisoners of war and
held in Otaru City on the island of Hokkaido. A third of them died there.
As a result of the attack, the U.S. government decided to evacuate the
remaining Aleuts. Residents were given less than 24 hours to prepare to
leave. They were taken to Wrangell Institute, a government boarding
school, until permanent locations could be found. Four camps were
eventually organized including a gold mine and abandoned canneries. The
lack of planning led to inadequate housing, food and poor health and
sanitation conditions. Many evacuees did not have heat for the harsh
Alaskan winters. One in ten evacuees died, mostly the elders and babies.
The Aleut homes on the islands were burned and farm animals were
slaughtered to prevent the Japanese from taking them. Even more
tragically, cultural artifacts were looted by the U.S. troops and the
Japanese. Strangely enough, some Aleuts were allowed to return to the
islands so the $2.4 million fur seal industry could continue. The Civil Rights
Act of 1988 awarded damages to Japanese Americans and Aleuts and
President George H.W. Bush issued an apology. Eligible Aleuts received up
to $12,000 in compensation and a $5 million restitution fund to benefits the
evacuees, their descendants and their communities. (based on a Seattle
Times article by Levi J. Long, February 19, 2004)
Sam Lacy (Shinnecock)
Sam Lacy, a biracial Shinnecock Indian, was born in 1903 in Connecticut but
grew up in Washington, DC. As a youth, he was a huge baseball fan. He
graduated from Howard University where he did sports commentary on the
radio with a degree in education. He also was active in semipro baseball
and basketball. In 1930 he started work for the Washington Tribune and
eventually became the managing editor. In 1948, Lacy became the first
member of color of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Early in his career, Lacy was barred from many baseball and football press
boxes because of his color. It was he who chronicled for the black press
Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947. Because of his being barred from press
boxes, famed Dodgers manager, Branch Rickey told Lacy he could report
from the Dodgers dugout. Once when he was barred from a New Orleans
baseball press box, he took a chair and sat on the press box roof. He was
soon joined by several Caucasian sportswriters from New York.
In 1997, he was named winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for
meritorious contributions to baseball writing and was named to the Baseball
Hall of Fame’s wing for writers and broadcasters. He continued in sports
reporting for a total of 69 years before dying in May 2003 at age 99. (based
on a New York Times article by Frank Litsky)